By Kate Deming
How can New York City, one of the most diverse cities in the world, have never had a woman of color as mayor, or even a woman!? But at last, maybe the time is now. The New York City mayoral election is quickly approaching in November and two women are running to change that. Maya Wiley and Dianne Morales, two women of color, have joined a crowded field of candidates running for mayor.
Maya Wiley was born in Washington DC, a daughter of a black father who was a civil rights leader and academic, and a white mother who is credited for shaping Maya’s progressive ideology. She graduated from Dartmouth University with a degree in psychology and went on to pursue her Jurius Doctor at Columbia.
Her career jump-started as a civil rights lawyer by working in the civil division in the United States Attorney Office for the Southern District of New York. She followed that with positions at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the ACLU before being appointed consular to Mayor de Blasio in 2014.
Although Wiley resigned in 2016 after growing frustrated and questioning de Blasio’s commitment to his duty as mayor, her association with de Blasio has been noted as one of the most prevalent challenges she will face throughout the race. On the issue, Wiley states, “When I’m in charge, you will never have to question whether anyone is listening, whether the mayor even wants the job…You will never have to ask yourself whether you matter. You will never have to wonder whether I’m in Iowa.”
Following her resignation, she became the chairwoman of the Civilian Complaint Review Board for the NYPD. This board handled any reports of misconduct against NYPD officers. Wiley has made it clear that one of her main priorities is police brutality and systemic racism. On her website, she states, “We also need leadership that will demand law enforcement accountability and culture change. Leadership that believes we can demilitarize the force while still clearly responding to and investigating serious crime, illegal guns, and threats of terrorism.”
After chairing this board for just shy of a year, Wiley moved to work at the New School where she is a professor of urban policy and management as well as the President of Social Justice. She is also a national correspondent on MSNBC.
LREI freshman Willow Whelan who has been researching Maya Wiley recently expressed that, “Especially with the recent inauguration of Vice President Kamala Harris, it is only fitting and high time that we have a woman of color in the mayoral office in our city.”
Similar to Maya Whiley, candidate Dianne Morales has also never held public office previous to her mayoral run. Although she has never “officially” been involved in politics, she has circled it with her work as a nonprofit leader. Morales leads Phillip’s Neighborhood that is focused in the South Bronx, she serves on the board of the Human Services Council, which is a group that oversees social service nonprofits, and she serves on New York City’s Community Services Advisory Board under Mayor de Blasio. Also recruited to lead the Mayor’s Equal Employment Practices Commission, she dropped out to begin her run for City Hall.
Dianne Morales was born and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and is the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants. She received her Master’s Degree in Social Administration from Columbia University, and a Master’s in Education from Harvard University. She is the single mother of two children and is seeking to become New York City’s first female mayor and its first Afro-Latina mayor! When Morales kicked off her campaign for mayor, she stated, “We’ve had 109 mayors in New York. One was Black. None were women. None were Latino. None were indigenous. None were Asian. I know I’m not a traditional candidate. I’m not a traditional candidate because I’ve not spent a lifetime jockeying for the job.”
She is running against seasoned politicians on a progressive platform, which entails diverting NYC police department funds to youth programs, parks, and transportation! Morales believes that officers have been “foot soldiers for a mass incarceration movement” and wants to create a department of Community First Responders to take on some public safety functions, including handling 911 calls for not only substance abuse but mental illness.
When LREI freshman Shoshi Fine first read Dianne Morales’s plans, she shared that “Dianne Morales’ progressive stance shows that these types of policies need to be represented more in our government, specifically in our state government. I always see politicians promising something that never happens.”
Is change coming to our city? As the primary and election approaches, time will tell.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/nyregion/maya-wiley-mayor-nyc.html
https://www.curbed.com/article/everyone-running-for-new-york-city-mayor.html
Cover source: https://nypost.com/2020/12/05/maya-wiley-staying-on-as-msnbc-expert-despite-nyc-mayoral-run/